The Reluctant Patriot
“My country right or wrong. If right to be kept right; if wrong to be set right.”
— Carl Schurz
I am a reluctant patriot. I am an American by chance.
Because both of my parents are American citizens, and because I was delivered on U.S. soil, I became an American citizen the second I was born. While lying in my incubator, I was provided 3 gifts by my Uncle Sam: a Social Security number, a tax break for my parents, and a document granting me the right to deny housing to soldiers in my private domicile, as well as the right to buy guns to shoot them with if they got testy about it.
At the age of 16, I was afforded the privilege of providing a portion of my meager salary to fund the nation that so graciously made me her son. At the age of 18, I was given both the right to control the path of my nation’s government and the right to die in defense of it. The former was optional, the latter was mandatory.
At the age of 21, I was allowed to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages. At the age of 62, I will be gifted back that portion of my meager salary until I die. At the age of 65, I will be gifted government health insurance until I die. Once I am dead, a worker will update a spreadsheet to let the government know that I can no longer help it fund its most recent globetrotting adventure, nor help pay for the aid we give to the orphans resulting from said globetrotting adventure.
On November 5th, 2024, I cast a ballot in defense of our decaying country. On November 6th, I remembered which country I was trying to defend.
“Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner. You must be eating some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American.”
— Malcolm X
Regardless of one’s background, political leaning, or upbringing, there’s a myriad of reasons one may feel contempt for America. For many of my generation, just watching as a geriatric government leads us into a dystopic future denies any chance for patriotism to swell within our hearts.
In the shadow of the Twin Towers, we witnessed the cost — both human and material — of unquestioning jingoism. Now, we bear witness to the death rattles of the Pax Americana and stumble into an era of disinformation and a global resurgence of autocratic inclinations.
Even as America continues to diversify and make progress (however slowly) in rectifying the grievous sins of its past, those opposed to these changes and reconciliatory efforts have maintained their sway over far too large a percentage of voters for disillusion to not infect those fighting for the day when the lofty maxims of our founding documents become reality.
This growing disillusion is not restricted to party lines. The results of the 2024 election indicate an American people who have lost faith in our institutions (for completely understandable reasons). It has become clear to many that the egalitarian ideals drilled into all of our heads as children (regardless of the ample hypocrisy of the founders who aimed to enshrine these ideals) are in reality nothing but a pleasant fairy tale aimed at tempering a people born out of violent revolution.
Politicians who are willing to call out that deception and demand genuine change have achieved bipartisan support from voters in an era defined by excessive partisanship. Yet, the bulwark of opposition from parties interested in maintaining the fairy tale has so far managed to prevent any true rejection of the current state of affairs. And, despite their unpopularity, the two-party system and the death grip of gerrymandering ensure they will retain their seats in Congress until the Reaper collects his due.
As a result of this seemingly endless stagnation, the anger and frustration that comes from punching a brick wall has led to the ascension of a man who claims to deride the wall, yet is one of the people with a vested interest in ensuring it never falls.
Still, in spite of this reality, I find myself drawn to the ramparts in defense of Columbia. Or, really, the potential of what she could still become.
“‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she
with silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.’”— Emma Lazarus
Since I was a child, the concept of America being the “New World” appealed immensely to me. Although the land was very much known to the Indigenous peoples who lived here for centuries prior to the arrival of the first Spanish settlers, it provided an opportunity for those “wretched refuse” of the “Old World” to escape war, poverty, religious persecution, and all of the ails that continue to plague nations across the globe today.
This is by no means an attempt to whitewash the brutal colonization of the Americas and all of the horrors, including chattel slavery, that came with it. Rather, it is something that I feel is important to lift up when discussing the merits of this nation.
Despite the current zeitgeist deriding America as the hub of modern prejudices, namely racism and xenophobia, the reality is these diseases remain extremely prevalent in the “Old World” as well.
In Europe, we are witnessing a massive reactionary response to multiculturalism as far-right political parties take advantage of growing disapproval of the European Union’s refugee and immigration policies. Prejudice against the Roma people remains extremely prevalent, and the hyper-nationalism that defines Putin’s Russia threatens to take root and corrupt democracies across the continent.
In Asia, China continues its purge of Uyghur culture and the internment of the Uyghur population as part of its efforts to establish Han ethnic supremacy over the disparate peoples within its borders. Even though President Biden’s description of Japan (alongside China, India, and Russia) as “xenophobic” was dismissed as a blunder and condemned by the Japanese government, it holds merit when one takes a look at their immigration policies and general attitudes towards residents in the nation who are not ethnically Japanese. And Narendra Modi’s campaign to establish Hindu supremacy in India has targeted the more than 200 million Indian Muslims who call the nation home.
Recently, the governments of Australia and New Zealand found themselves in the news for political controversies related to their Indigenous populations. In Africa, tribal differences that were blatantly ignored by the European colonizers who drew lines across its terrain have led to countless ethnic conflicts and genocide.
In short, no nation today is free from these sins.
Though America has always struggled to find a balance between assimilation and multiculturalism (with the “melting pot” concept paradoxically serving as a metaphor for both), we have continuously upheld the notion that our country serves as a safe refuge for those fleeing their places of origin — not without notable opposition, of course.
Nativism as a political philosophy has gone through significant rebrandings over our nearly 250 years as a country. The fiercly anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant “Know Nothing Party” dissolved at the eve of the Civil War, but the ideas perpetuated by its adherents remains deep in the bedrock of the nation. Like a cancerous tumor, we have managed to force it into remission from time to time. But now, in the wake of the 2024 election, these ideas may very well become official policy.
“He doesn’t like my name… Of course we couldn’t all come over on the Mayflower… But I got here as soon as I could, and I never wanted to go back, because to me it is a great privilege to be an American citizen.”
— Anton Cermak
In spite of these nativist inclinations, it is impossible to deny the greatest strength of our nation is the multicultural fabric that defines it.
Jazz, the first truly American form of music, was a mix of Black American musical forms, including blues and ragtime, and European ones, namely harmonic structures and instrumentation.
Jewish scientists, escaping the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, went on to build the atomic bomb, cementing American supremacy in the post-war world.
The rails that stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific were built using slaves and heavily exploited foreign labor.
During the “Great Crusade” to rid the world of fascism, American soldiers from every ethnic and racial background served with valor despite facing daily discrimination. Even as their own country placed their families in concentration camps, 33,000 Japanese-Americans enlisted in the armed forces and proved their loyalty to their home was stronger than the emboldened ignorance and hate spewing out of their fellow Americans.
Today, people from every corner of the globe call America their home. Regardless if we are “fresh off the boat”, 5th generation American, or semi-seriously debating fleeing to the Great White North, we make up the collective fabric that is responsible for turning a backwater colony of 2.5 million into the most powerful nation on Earth, 335 million strong.
And yet, the qualifier of “reluctant” in this piece’s title is entirely warranted, as this “City on the Hill” threatens to bury the rest of the world in a landslide.
“We have a bastard Patriotism, a sarcasm, a burlesque; but we have no such thing as a public conscience. Politically we are just a joke.”
— Mark Twain
Mark Twain wrote that as a note in his copy of H.G. Wells’ book The Future in America: A Search After Realities. The book is an account of Wells’ travels throughout the United States in 1906. According to Wells’, America is:
“a great and energetic English-speaking population strewn across a continent so vast as to make it seem small and thin…caught by the upward sweep of that great increase of knowledge that is everywhere enlarging the power and scope of human effort, exhilarated by it, and active and hopeful beyond any population the world has ever seen.”
He also wrote that America was engaged in “a universal commercial competition that must, in the end, if it is not modified, divide them into two permanent classes of rich and poor.”
On top of being a bit of a history nerd, I also love historical music.
A controversial opinion of mine is my disapproval of the Star Spangled Banner as our national anthem. It has nothing to do with the orchestration or lyrics of the song itself (though the full lyrics warrant scrutiny), but rather the fact it is not easy at all for the average person to sing, which sort of defeats the purpose.
Before the Star Spangled Banner was officially adopted in 1931, a few songs acted as defacto anthems, including my preferred alternatives: Columbia the Gem of the Ocean by Thomas A’Becket, and Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa. Lyrics from both of these still manage to enliven the flickering flame of patriotism in my heart.
From Columbia the Gem of the Ocean:
Thy mandates make heroes assemble,
When liberty’s form stands in view;
Thy Banners make tyranny tremble,
When born by the red, white and blue.
And from Stars and Stripes Forever:
Hurrah for the flag of the free,
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor,
Proclaim’d as they march’d to the fray,
That by their might, and by their right,
It waves forever!
The common theme in both, unapologetic opposition to tyranny, is what appeals to me most. Nothing makes me feel more patriotic than the belief that our victory against King George the III and the British Empire was the start of an effort to wipe despotism from the face of the Earth; that horrid blight that makes slaves out of man, emboldens hate and distrust within people, and sacrifices them in wars waged in pursuit of profit.
Yet, the cruel reality revealed throughout human history is that the ideals of a nation’s people are often no match against the armies of greed, hate, and tyranny. Peaceful revolutions are the exception in history, and our nation’s revolution is not counted among them.
Our revolution was bloody. Families were torn apart. Massacres and crimes were conducted by both sides. Slaves were forced to fight for the freedom of their masters in a war begun by the so-called Sons of Liberty. Working class people died for ideals while the well-to-do of the colony (including many of the founders), in reality, fought solely to replace the mercantile economic system with one that placed more money in their coffers.
That is the unfortunate truth behind some of the most consequential revolutions in history. Far too often, revolutionary rhetoric has been coopted by individuals who aim not to empower their fellow man, but rather to steal the throne for themselves. To quote The Who: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Today in America, a charade created by some of these individuals has convinced a significant number of Americans to support a return to monarchical rule, all while loudly claiming exclusive rights to the very concept of “America” itself. In utter contempt for the revolution they love to reference, the brand of patriotism prescribed by these individuals reinforces an unquestioning allegiance to the nation and its Commander in Chief that would make even King George blush — providing that Chief is of the correct political persuasion, of couse.
America is a nation founded on a bedrock of hypocrisy. Frederick Douglass’ speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, illustrates that fact most succinctly. And in an era when a mass movement of Americans not only imply that the sins of the nation’s past have been completely rectified, but also state their intent to whitewash our history and prevent even the acknowledgment of those sins, we are forced to ask ourselves the following: What to the American is America?
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
— Thomas Paine
I refuse to believe the death of democracy in America will come as a result of culture wars propagated through shoddy AI posts on social media. The true threat to any democracy is complacency. When 90 million eligible voters fail to cast a ballot, excluding those who have valid reasons (accessibility, registration status, suppression tactics, etc.), we have no one to blame but ourselves.
There’s no debate that the ultra-wealthy who wish to turn America into an open oligarchy have far more power and influence than the average voter. Still, regardless of your opinion on whether we even have a democracy currently (or ever had one at all), millions of people indicating their opinions and lines in the sand is something the ruling class is forced to acknowledge at a minimum, and obey when forced to. Yes, they are actively trying to influence people to vote against their own interest, and yes, it is always going to be a struggle to keep our heads above water, but that has been the reality since the dawn of man.
To put it simply, there’s a reason we don’t sing God Save the King before a cricket game at Yankee Stadium.
I am a patriot for the country I know America has the potential to be. I refuse to allow misguided people to claim the history and mission of this nation as their own, to pervert it into one of intolerance and march us back to a past of fictitious glory. I want to fight for a day when this country’s children can study our history — with all of its hypocrisies, follies, and tragedies — and have it serve as the drive to further perfect our imperfect Union.
A Union where we aim not only to acknowledge the mistakes of the past, but to seek genuine reconciliation and justice, and preserve the integrity of our institutions to ensure the mistakes of the past never happen again.
A Union where no one would feel reluctant to be patriotic.
